


Nth Degree

by AuroraNova



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 16:55:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7114408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuroraNova/pseuds/AuroraNova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A disturbing discovery about how the Blinovitch Limitation Effect works when Jack is involved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nth Degree

**Author's Note:**

> Another story from 2010 written for the LJ wintercompanions group challenge. Of course, I own nothing and make no money from this tale.

As soon as Jack stepped out of the TARDIS, it was clear that Halniak Colony’s annual solstice celebration was well underway. He could hear the loud, low beat of Halniaki drums and from the aroma he could tell they’d landed not far from a stall selling sweet roasted bula fruit. 

Jack wasn’t the only one looking forward to a good time at the festivities. The Doctor was beside him, grinning. “Oooh, roasted bula fruit! I haven’t had that in ages.”

“Me neither,” said Jack, though since Earth didn’t have bula fruit until the fortieth century he figured that was pretty obvious. 

Halniak Colony was a hot world, and Jack was already glad for the warm breeze. He’d left his greatcoat in the TARDIS. The Doctor, who was immune to all but the most extreme of temperature changes, still had his coat, which the wind was flipping around his legs. 

Jack was quite surprised when his wristcomp beeped, indicating a holomessage. The Doctor frowned and asked, “Jack?”

He shrugged and activated the projection. What came up shocked both him and his lover.

The holomessage was from the Doctor, with Halniak Colony being ravaged all around him. It wasn’t just the powerless, defeated look on the Doctor’s face, nor the desperate flash in his eyes, nor even the fact that he was holding and using the wristcomp that Jack never took off. No, the real horror was unfolding all around him. The wind was trashing the festival, leaving only the Doctor untouched. It wasn’t the nice breeze Jack had just noted, but violent gusts accompanied by brief sparks swirling and crashing into each other everywhere but around the Time Lord. That could only mean it was a temporal wind. And while Jack had never seen one, he knew enough about temporal winds to know that they only occurred when time itself was being pulled violently apart.

“Jack,” said the holographic Doctor. “You have to get back in the TARDIS. Right now. An earlier, mortal version of you is here. You accidentally bumped into yourself and the Blinovitch Limitation Effect caused this.”

“All this?” Jack asked. He’d never heard of a Blinovitch Limitation Effect causing temporal winds. 

“Of course!” snapped the real, flesh-and blood Doctor. 

“You need to prevent this from happening, or time is going to be in such a violent disturbance this planet will cease to exist.” With that, the hologram snapped into nothingness.

The Doctor was already dragging Jack back towards the TARDIS. Not wanting to cause the disappearance of a planet, Jack followed quickly, keeping a careful eye on passersby. When the TARDIS door shut behind them, he said, “That’s some Blinovitch Limitation Effect.”

The Doctor headed to the console, running his hand through his spiky hair as he took scans. “Normally, it would be so small most people wouldn’t notice. But the time differential is just part of the problem. You can apparently draw infinite energy from the Vortex to come back to life.”

Now Jack saw where this was going. “And you can’t equalize anything with infinity.”

“Exactly.” At least the Doctor seemed satisfied that catastrophe had been averted. 

“I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“Hopefully, you never will. Those sparks you saw? They’re the result of time destroying itself trying to simultaneously change course and correct back, over and over.” The Doctor shuddered a little.

“We stopped it, right?”

“Yes.”

Even though he knew the comment wouldn’t be appreciated, he said, “You still look a little off.” 

“That version of me telepathically projected some of the impact on my time sense. I reckon that keeping the storm away from me long enough to record the message was draining my shields.”

That had to be serious, but before Jack could comment, his lover had (predictably) changed the subject. “Jack,” said the Doctor reproachfully. “Didn’t you think to mention you’d been here before?”

“I don’t remember. Missing two years, remember?”

Even the Doctor had to concede that was a valid reason for Jack’s failure to share the information. 

Fortunately, Jack had an idea that could prevent such a disaster from happening. He hoped. Flipping open his wristcomp, he set to work. “I’m setting it to alert me whenever I come within two kilometers of myself.”

The Doctor looked at the door uneasily, which told Jack that the telepathic time sense projection had unsettled him more than he wanted to admit. 

“You know,” suggested Jack, “there’s a solstice festival here every year, and you keep telling me you’ll show me how to travel in time but not space.”

“Right.” The Doctor eagerly took the excuse Jack offered. “How about five years in the future?”

“Sounds good.”

“The most important thing is to make sure the physical location is still clear. Wouldn’t do to land on somebody, now would it? That’s what this little button is for. Oh, it’s been sticking, let me just go find the gel…”

The Doctor went to one of the supply closets, leaving Jack to contemplate his ability to accidentally cause time to destroy itself and a whole world in the process. It wasn’t a pleasant thought. The Doctor said he wasn’t wrong anymore, and Jack believed him. (He knew Doctor wouldn’t have sex with someone wrong, not to mention the cuddling and making out that Jack was pretty sure the Doctor liked, even if he pretended it was all for Jack’s sake.) But for the first time Jack understood why the Time Lord’s first reaction was to think he was wrong. 

And now he was the one more unsettled than he wanted to admit, even to himself.


End file.
